50mm Lens, Canon 50D, Instagram, Photo Editing, Photography, Picfair, Thursday Doors

Thursday Doors: Secret Garden, Secret Door

I was enjoying a day out at Buckland Abbey and came across this lovely door:

ISO 250 50mm 1/200 f/8.0

It’s an entrance to a secret garden that is on the grounds.  Beautiful, but not really easy to photograph, lots of dark shadows.  Here is one of the original shots:

ISO 250 50mm 1/200 f/8.0

The color of the flowers in the original is lovely but a bit overpowering. As for the dark shadows, I decided to go ahead and make friends with that element of the photo.  I was working in Photoshop here, but used the add-on Analog Efex Pro as a starting point.  I ended up liking a filter that had a bit a blue tone to it.  I also straightened the photo.

I posted an Instagram version here:

View this post on Instagram

From the beautiful #gardens at #bucklandabbey @nationaltrust

A post shared by Amy Maranto (@marantophotography) on

and have the full-size original in my Picfair portfolio.

While I often edit to make a photo look more like the actual scene, in this case I liked the darker tones. I think it makes the photo a bit more mellow and serene.  Has this ever happened to you, an element of an original photo that you find bothersome ends up being its strength?  Do you like the darker tones of this image? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Cheers!

 

 

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37 thoughts on “Thursday Doors: Secret Garden, Secret Door”

  4. Beautiful! Yes, I do find sometimes I’m losing to gain when it comes to photo editing. I think all three photos are marvelous, because it’s beautiful, but I do prefer the IG photo overall.

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    • The beautiful thing about Photoshop is that there are a lot of different ways you can go about achieving similar looks, so yes, I do agree that your suggestions would have created something very similar. I’ll be honest, I haven’t worked with diffuse glow for awhile, so I’ll have to remember that next time I am looking to create something like this, thanks!

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  7. I am still thinking about the edits – but I know what you mean if you feel something is too much – like the color of the flowers
    and wow – thanks for bringing this lovely garden door to the door community this week – seriously – it is artsy and a work of craftmanship

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  8. I find this image beautiful. Delicate and powerful at the same time. I like the contrast and the lines accentuated by the darkness which also brings out the detail in the stones. I enjoy the original image with it’s saturation and the richness I experience from that.

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  11. Hi Amy, the other thing I noticed about the final version was that it seemed more “fairy-tale” like. Maybe there is a more pewter-tone feeling to the image, which is what made me think of fairy tales or those old-fashioned illustrated folk tale editions. This was nice!

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